Capital and Labor

Sections

Critical Literature

Throughout the Twenties, writers used their talents to support a
variety of causes. Supporters of the labor movement were no different. On
the pages of magazines like The Masses or in
novels, they created stories intended to sway the collective mind of the
American public and diffuse the hostility to organized labor.

Upton Sinclair, best known for writing The
Jungle (1906), an expose of the meat-packing industry, supported
socialist causes throughout his life and continued to write novels that
illuminated the injustices he saw in the United States. His 1927 novel
Oil! examined the potential for greed and
corruption in the oil industry, prompted in part by the Teapot Dome
Scandal.

Before Bruce Barton imagined Jesus as the founder of modern business,
Sinclair depicted a Jesus called "Carpenter" who finds he is out
of step with American society in They Call Me
Carpenter (1922). Like Barton, Sinclair's work suggested that
Americans did not know the real Jesus. Unlike Barton, Sinclair believed
that business had effectively usurped him. In the novel, Carpenter hangs a portrait of a bank president in the church window in the space formerly occupied by Jesus.
The novel concluded with Carpenter written off
as an anarchist and threat to society.

Front cover from They Call Me Carpenter
Upton Sinclair

In They Call Me Carpenter (1922), Upton Sinclair used Jesus (Carpenter) as a way to critique American society, particularly the plight of the working class.